Kaiser Permanente Blows Smoke; NUHW Lands Body Blow

Remember the saying, “It's not the size of the union in the fight, but the size of the fight in the union”?

Well, on Monday, 4,000 of NUHW’s members launched a week-long strike against Kaiser Permanente across California to protest the HMO's chronic understaffing of its mental health services and the horrible impact on patients, including tragic suicides.

The strike -- which NUHW says is the largest strike by mental health professionals in the nation-- is quite remarkable.

NUHW’s members are giving the U.S.'s biggest HMO a run for the money… and have already left their multi-billion-dollar employer with a black eye and a bloody nose!

In response to workers’ strike, media outlets have published more than a thousand stories about Kaiser's underfunded and failed mental health services. Three elected officials have stepped forward with accounts about how their family members committed suicide after Kaiser delayed their access to mental health care.

Kaiser, now playing defense, is running daily full-page ads in newspapers across the state along with a steady flow of radio ads in a desperate effort to repair the damage.

So why has Kaiser blundered so badly?

According to observers, Kaiser's fatcat executives decided to ignore the well-documented problems affecting their mental health services and instead proceeded to carefully insert their heads even deeper inside the posterior end of their gastrointestinal tracts.

Kaiser's John Nelson

One of Kaiser's chief idiots is John Nelson, the Vice President of Brand Management. 

Before joining Kaiser, Nelson worked as "a strategic communications professional” for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, the utility that was fined $1.4 billion for killing 8 people and blowing up multiple city blocks in a firestorm that resulted from PGE’s greedy refusal to fix its leaky, underground natural gas pipes.

Nelson, like a rabid "climate denier," loves to issue vociferous denials of any criticism of Kaiser's mental health services... even though, just four months ago, Kaiser paid a $4 million fine to state regulators for multiple mental health violations, including imposing lengthy illegal appointment delays on patients and falsifying appointment records by employing a parallel set of books.

Last month, SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan delivered one of his more pathetic performances by working hand in hand with Nelson to spout Kaiser's corporate talking points against Kaiser's patients and workers. 

Yesterday, an award-winning columnist at the San Francisco Chronicle penned a piece that sent Nelson's head spinning. It turns out the columnist, Jon Carroll, is a Kaiser member and has personally had problems with the HMO's mental health care. Carroll skillfully clowned Kaiser for its dishonest media campaign by publishing a column entitled: "This Just In: Patients Know Stuff Too."

Carroll writes:

...some of us are not ordinary outsiders -- some of us are Kaiser members. We watch the bureaucracy yawn and shift. We understand the virtues and hate the flaws. And here's a true thing: Kaiser mental healthcare facilities are really not very good.

He goes on to describe his own experiences at Kaiser and then launches a frontal assault on Nelson’s bald-faced lies:

So Kaiser can throw around as much smoke as it can find. It already paid a fine for its scheduling practices. The paucity of its mental health services is pretty well known locally. If it's going to consciously gut the programs, it should just say so and move on. But it can't pretend that black is white.

Ouch!

For more info, here's a link to photos and news coverage of the strike on NUHW’s website.

Next Stop for SEIU-UHW's Concessionary Caravan?

Sutter Health CEO Pat Fry & Dave Regan

Tasty hears that Dave Regan’s concessionary caravan is making its next stop at Sutter Health, the largest hospital chain in Northern California. 

And guess what? An SEIU-UHW staffer -- who’s now working as one of Sutter’s “Human Resources Partners” -- is actually helping to implement the company’s cuts.

Here’s what’s happening.

Soon, union contracts covering thousands of SEIU-UHW members will be expiring at nearly a dozen of Sutter’s hospitals. In recent months, Sutter’s executives have drooled in sheer delight as Dave Regan gave away hundreds of millions of dollars of concessions to Catholic Healthcare West/Dignity Health, the Daughters of Charity Health System, Kaiser Permanente and other companies. Regan's concessions include wage freezes, health insurance cuts, elimination of pension plans, and cuts to workers’ retiree health benefits.

Now... Regan plans to give up the same concessions to Sutter Health even though the company has pocketed $1.6 billion in profits during the past two years, according to the company’s audited financial statements.

At one of Sutter’s largest hospitals -- Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland and Berkeley -- the CEO recently announced plans to “restructure” the hospital’s operations by slashing workers’ wages and benefits, and axing 10 percent of the hospital’s staff. Here’s what CEO Chuck Prosper said in a June 26th letter to 1,100 SEIU-UHW members at the hospital:

We must ask our labor partners to recognize this situation and cooperate with us as we ask for significant, but realistic, changes in our wage and benefit structure... After taking a hard look at the future, the administrative team has concluded we must restructure and reduce our staffing by approximately 10 percent... This reduction will affect employees and departments throughout our organization.

And in another letter, Sutter executives told workers that their former SEIU-UHW Field Representative -- Dominic Mitchell -- will be one of the company's “Human Resources Partners” who will implement the cuts and layoffs. Here’s the letter:

 Letter from Sutter Health's Alta Bates Summit Medical Center to SEIU-UHW Members regarding Layoffs facilita...

So is Alta Bates Summit Medical Center losing money? 

Not by a long shot. In fact, the hospital made more than $200 million in profits during the past two years, according to reports filed by the company.

So what's going on?

Sources tell Tasty that Dave Regan has become best buddies with Patrick Fry, the CEO of Sutter Health. Fry happens to sit on the Board of Directors of the California Hospital Association, which recently signed a secret “partnership” deal with Regan.

Last week, when Sutter delivered layoff letters to workers, SEIU-UHW didn’t even mount a protest against the job cuts… and instead held a barbeque for employees!  Incredible. SEIU literally threw bones to workers while their fat-cat employer announced the destruction of their livelihoods.

And to add insult to injury, Regan sent an SEIU-UHW Field Representative named Fola Afariogun to try to sweet-talk the angry and soon-to-be-jobless workers. Afariogun, who last year took home $109,091 in pay from SEIU-UHW's members, displayed Regan’s keen sensitivity towards "the 99%" by driving up to the “layoff BBQ” in his shiny Mercedes sports coup. Here’s Afariogun’s pay from 2011 (click on the image to enlarge it):

Source: U.S. Dep't of Labor Form LM-2 for SEIU-UHW, 2011

Finally, sources report that Regan’s backroom deal with Sutter has left the California Nurses Association in a difficult spot. Sutter is trying to force SEIU’s concessions down the throats of the hospitals' Registered Nurses, which has caused the nurses to respond with strikes. Regan, however, has worked hand-in-hand with Sutter to oppose the strikes, even instructing SEIU-UHW’s members to scab against their fellow nurses. Sound familiar, Kaiser workers?

 Stay tuned for more reports from Sutter's hospitals.

Toto Joins SEIU-Kaiser Permanente Propaganda Campaign

Have you ever wondered what might cause Kaiser and SEIU to feature Dorothy, Toto and the Wizard of Oz in an article about the Labor Management Partnership (LMP)? Well, check out this story.

Apparently, workers at Kaiser Permanente have become increasingly disgusted with the Partnership between SEIU and Kaiser. According to the LMP’s magazine called “Hank,” a recent survey of employees reveals that many workers have “negative perceptions of partnership.” What a shocker!

Well... the head-honchos at Kaiser and SEIU have gotten so nervous about their plunging popularity that they decided to launch a propaganda campaign featuring videos, online quizzes and glossy articles that are aimed at convincing workers to support for the LMP.

Sounds kinda ominous… until you take a look at the hilariously lame materials that SEIU and Kaiser have shoveled into their first propaganda piece.

The two partners – in their typical, arrogant fashion – have once again decided to treat workers like a bunch of six-year-olds. Their ingenious article uses a “Wizard of Oz” theme that features pictures of workers and Toto gazing down the Yellow Brick Road from their perch inside Dorothy’s giant shoes.

The super-defensive article is entitled: “PARTNERSHIP? REALLY? If the Labor Management Partnership Is All It’s Cracked Up To Be, Why Do We Keep Hearing These Myths about It?” And it includes gems of wisdom like these:

Myths are useful when they help people understand their world. They get in the way when they prop up and lend an air of truth to outdated ideas. Fourteen years in, it’s troubling there are some persistent myths, the latter kind, about the Labor Management Partnership.

Partnership is not a diabolical management scheme to hoodwink union members… Misunderstanding partnership basics like these undermines our ability to produce superior health care outcomes.

The naysayers perpetuate a different view of LMP, claiming… that management has co-opted the unions.

But wait, gentle readers! That’s not all! This hard-hitting article tries to tackle myths like this one:

MYTH: The Labor Management Partnership is a way to hoodwink frontline workers. Unions that partner with employers are selling out their members’ interests.

How to answer this one? Fortunately, an SEIU-UHW “partnership representative” at Kaiser San Jose Medical Center sets all of the silly workers straight: “The partnership has always been a win-win.” Whew! That explains it all! Tasty knew there was a perfectly good reason why Dave Regan accepted the $242 million cut in Kaiser workers’ lump-sum pension payouts without ever putting it to a vote of the membership. Win-win!

Tasty especially likes this bizarre picture of the Wicked Witch of the West using her crystal ball to watch workers (and Toto) as they desperately seek the “the other side of the rainbow” while they float in giant high-heeled shoes along the Yellow Brick Road! (Btw, who's the witch?)

So who penned this inane article? Tasty hears it was the brainchild of Dave Regan and John August (Executive Director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions), who apparently smoked massive amounts of drugs before sketching their Pulitzer Prize-winning piece. Hey Dave and John -- Tasty can’t wait ‘til your next article comes out!

In the News

Tasty learned that, before NUHW's recent strike at Kaiser, management threatened to lock out nurses if they walked off the job. But the RNs didn't blink and walked out on strike, forcing Kaiser to back down from its threats. No lock-outs.

For those who didn't see all the TV news, check out this coverage on NBC that includes an interview with rank-and-file leader David Mallon.

And here's national coverage on MSNBC of NUHW's campaigns at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital and Kaiser. Way to go NUHW!

NUHW members at Kaiser Strike!

Check out coverage:

LAist

KTLA TV

KNBC TV

Michael Moore's website

Kaiser and SEIU on Trial

Last week, an Administrative Law Judge in Cali started hearing testimony from Kaiser workers about 30 separate violations of federal labor law that SEIU and Kaiser are charged with committing during last year's NLRB election for 43,000 Kaiser workers. Tasty hears that the judge, who has the power to overturn the election results and to order a new election, heard some explosive testimony. Here is one highlight:

On Wednesday a Kaiser worker described how Kaiser officials let SEIU hold pro-SEIU campaign meetings in Kaiser's own conference rooms, even as Kaiser officials surveilled and threatened NUHW supporters. SEIU attorney Bruce Harland (pictured) aggressively attacked the testimony, claiming the SEIU was just holding a regular membership meeting in the Kaiser conference room. So the next day, a worker came forward and played a home-made video that she took inside the same meeting. Check it out. Does this look like your typical union meeting?

Pay special attention to how quickly Kaiser security guards show up and try to eject the dues-paying SEIU member. Although its not caught on tape, workers testified that Kaiser managers showed up immediately after the security guards, lecturing the amateur videographer, then let SEIU continue using Kaiser's conference room for campaigning.

As the judge viewed the video, SEIU attorney was seen gritting his teeth as his credibility dropped through the floor.

Tasty hears that SEIU has no less than 4 Attorneys at the hearing (excellent use of your dues!) while Kaiser has hired multiple lawyers from Nixon Peabody, a union busting firm with offices in Shanghai, London and Paris.

Next up? The hearing is on hold this week and relocates to LA on March 1st so workers from Southern California can offer their testimony to the judge. Stay tuned!

Legal Happs

Last week, two separate judges delivered a pair of legal body-blows to Kaiser Permanente and SEIU.

On Monday, an Administrative Law Judge issued this 23-page decision that rules that Kaiser executives broke the law when they withheld as much as $2 million in pay and benefits from 2,300 RNs and professionals who voted overwhelmingly to (87% to 13%) join NUHW in January. The judge orders Kaiser to "cease and desist" from violating federal law and tells it to immediately "restore and maintain" workers' wages and benefits by awarding back pay, plus accumulated interest, to the workers.

The judge has few kind words for Kaiser. He calls Kaiser's actions "inherently destructive" of employees' basic labor rights and discusses "the massive damage done" by Kaiser's execs. The judge dismisses Kaiser's legal arguments with words like these: "indefensible," "lacks merit," "is without any legal foundation," "even worse..." Tasty especially likes this one: "It is on this point that this contention by Respondent [Kaiser Permanente] collapses completely." Ouch!

Then, on Friday, a second judge issued this federal injunction against Kaiser's law-breaking execs. Kaiser's actions were so severe that the NLRB went to the the extra length of seeking a 10(j) injunction in federal court to stop Kaiser from using endless NLRB appeals as part of an SEIU-styled stalling tactic. In his ruling, the federal judge continued the trampling of Kaiser and its attorneys: "This... fallacious argument amounts to nothing more than sophistry intended to conceal an unwillingness to bargain." Here's the NLRB's press release on the injunction.

Well...so much for the millions of dollars that Kaiser must have paid to Nixon Peabody, the union-busting law firm Kaiser hired to defend itself. Nixon Peabody is one of the world's largest law firms with offices in Paris, London and Shanghai. According to the firm's website, the two attorneys hired by Kaiser -- Michael Lindsay and Seth Neulight-- specialize in "advising employers on union avoidance related issues." In fact, Neulight's personal profile brags about how he helped a distribution company fight a Teamsters organizing drive.

So why are these legal rulings also a blow against SEIU? Well, after Kaiser illegally withheld millions of dollars in pay and benefits from the 2,300 RNs and professionals, Kaiser and SEIU (or "KaiSEIU") then launched a massive campaign to threaten thousands more Kaiser workers with the same cuts if they voted to join NUHW in the next round of elections.

In fact, SEIU spent millions on mail, email, robocalls, push-polls, videos, and out-of-state organizers to make threats like these to the 43,000 workers waiting for their election. The two judges' rulings show how KaiSEIU's entire campaign was built on massive violations of federal law that were "inherently destructive" to workers' rights and did "massive damage" to workers, according to the judges.

NUHW IS BACK IN THE GAME! 1500 Kaiser Workers Choose NUHW

Despite an intense campaign by the Kaiser and SEIU against NUHW (though what's the difference between those two these days?) and the larger Kaiser unit choosing SEIU, Kaiser Optical and IBHS (psych) workers joined NUHW :

Here are the totals:

IBHS: 3 to 1!

SEIU: 196
NUHW: 603
No Union: 0


Kaiser Optical:

SEIU: 142
NUHW: 154
No Union: 0

Nor Cal Social Workers:

SEIU: 148
NUHW: 139
No union: 2


As far as SEIU's last-ditch attempt to block the ballot count, here's some coverage in a local newspaper.

Congrats to all!

CHW Workers Remain Committed to NUHW!

Check out this cartoon and more at the awesome website of Ellen Dillinger--a UHW member and healthcare worker who is also a talented cartoonist!

Kaiser Election Aftermath...

So, readers and friends...NUHW lost to SEIU in the Kaiser election. NUHW filed objections to that election because of violations of the NLRA including Kaiser illegally helping SEIU and Kaiser withholding raises from NUHW members to influence the voters in this election (in other words-- the missing 2% raises from the SoCal pros.)

And Tasty has been hearing from readers with complaints about the election...like this one:


Tasty - I read the charges that NUHW filed last week against Kaiser and SEIU. But they forgot something important. Its true SEIU lied to Kaiser workers and told us we'd lose all our pay and benefits if we voted for NUHW. But SEIU had a special campaign to lie to immigrants. Why? Because many immigrants don't know how the laws work in this country. I know a guy from Mexico who works in dietary in my hospital. SEIU went to his house and told him "You got kids, right? And they get medical insurance from your job, right? If NUHW wins, your kids will lose their insurance." Another woman from Mexico, she works in EVS. SEIU went to her house 5 times one day and told her she will lose her pension if NUHW wins. She told me "I'm getting old. I can't lose my pension." I asked around, and in departments where theres just 1 or 2 Latinos, they were the only ones that SEIU visited in their houses. SEIU lied to all the workers, but they made a special focus to lie to immigrants. I hear that SEIU did the same thing to homecare workers in Fresno. Is that right? Isn't this kind of racial profiling illegal? For me, it is the most despicible thing to bully people who are the most vulnerable. Can the goverment investigate this? We need to let the world know what SEIU did here.

Kaiser Vote Results

SEIU 18,290
NUHW 11,364
Neither 365

A real bummer for NUHW, but when the boss and the incumbent union are working together...what can you expect?

But based on the violations of labor law, Tasty has his money on a re-run.

Dave Regan, an Excellent Chamber Maid.

In an effort to impose its will not just on the members of UHW, but on the more than 800,000 residents of the city and county of San Francisco, SEIU's trustees have teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to unseat the progressive majority at the SF board of supervisors. (The Bay Guardian has the details.)

The trustees' alliance with the Chamber is part of their ugly deal with the notoriously anti-union Sutter Health, and as the Guardian notes, "puts UHW, part of the Service Employees International Union, in the odd position of using membership money to attack progressive politics in San Francisco – potentially undermining years of work by another SEIU affiliate, Local 1021."

Beyond that--SEIU's latest deal with the devil actually undermines one of the only campaigns the SEIU-backed Change to Win coalition is currently waging: US Chamber Watch, an effort targeted at countering the Chamber's "extremist political advocacy."

According the the Change-to-Win sponsored website: "The mission of U.S. Chamber Watch is to promote greater transparency and accountability in American political processes by shedding light on the funding and practices of the largest private interest lobbyist in America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce."

Having sold out in such a bold way, it's difficult for SEIU and Change to Win to achieve even a minimal level of credibility when they try to pose as working class heroes fighting for the downtrodden--in fact they come off looking like pathetic hypocrites (just ask Jono Shaffer).

But, as you know, Tasty likes to look on the bright side. So where's the silver lining in this latest tawdry development? It's here: the deeper the hole SEIU digs for itself in California, the more we can see what the purple machine really stands for these days!

First, they decapitate the extremely popular and effective leadership of one of the best locals in all of SEIU, then in a desperate attempt to keep thousands of unhappy members in the fold they bully, lie and cheat their way through the bad joke known as the NLRB process. When that's not enough they jump in bed with the boss to get NUHW supporters fired.

At this point even the holdouts who bravely tried to defend SEIU's actions over the last year and a half will be forced to admit it: SEIU will say or do anything to hold on to the dues it extracts from the members of UHW. Even if that means hooking up with the Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, At the NLRB.

Today the counting has started, as you can see from a car parked near the NLRB offices in Oakland.

Ok, well, more like the prep to the counting has started. Today will likely be tasks like: going through the list of eligible voters, seeing if either side objects to anyone being eligible to vote (i.e. management, workers who haven't worked there enough, or don't work there anymore. ), checking envelopes, etc.

Kaiser, SEIU and NUHW each have a team of 22 people with them. The ballots, of which there are about 30,000, will be grouped in batches and divided among 15 teams (each team consisting of 1 each from Kaiser, NUHW (most are Kaiser members) and SEIU.) Each team will go through the ballots/envelopes, to prep them for counting. The other 7 people are watching the counting, covering breaks, and/or are lawyers for each side.

Probably no real counting will get done today, and with this number of ballots it might not be done until Friday. The counting will go on each day from 8:30am - 7pm--no breaks!

Tasty is willing to be that this will be the longest day any Kaiser manager has worked in a long time.

Kaiser: Time to Cut Checks!

It's official. The 10(j) has been issued--The NLRB has told Kaiser to give all workers who voted for NUHW the 2% raise that Kaiser legally owes them--ASAP!!

It's raise and retro time for SoCal Professionals and RNs!

While You Wait for the Kaiser Vote Results...

...enjoy a short video by Oscar Medina out about SEIU.

Kaiser Election--UPDATE--Time Extended

It's all over, except the counting!

All ballots must be in at the NLRB today.

The vote count starts Wednesday, Oct 6th, and may well take more than a day or two, depending on how many votes come in.

You'll know the results when Tasty does!

UPDATE: got this email!

Tasty - the NLRB has extended the final deadline for submitting ballots. The NLRB will accept mail-in ballots that arrive at its office before 5pm on Tuesday. So people in the immediate Bay Area can still mail their ballots on Monday so that they arrive on Tuesday. You can also hand-deliver your ballots to the NLRB office in Oakland up until 8:30am on Wednesday morning, when the ballot count begins. The NLRB's office is located in downtown Oakland at 1301 Clay Street, Room 300-N (510-637-3300). Bring your photo ID with you.

Breaking news! NLRB authorizes injunction against Kaiser

On Thursday, the NLRB authorized its attorneys to seek a 10(j) injunction in U.S. District Court against Kaiser Permanente for illegally withholding a 2% pay increase from the 2,300 RNs and Pros who voted overwhelmingly to join NUHW in January. This shows (once again) that SEIU is lying through its teeth when it tells Kaiser workers they'll lose their pay, benefits and scheduled raises if they vote to switch unions. It's a lie. In fact, Kaiser is now gonna get slapped with a federal injunction for breaking the law!

So what's a 10(j) injunction? It's like any court-ordered injunction or restraining order to stop illegal actions. Federal law allows the NLRB to seek 10(j) injunctions "when there is strong evidence that an employer has committed unfair labor practices" and the NLRB wants "swift relief" to "mitigate the damage of the employer's actions," according to the American Rights at Work (ARAW).

Each year, the NLRB seeks only a small number of 10(j) injunctions against the worst corporate offenders (That's you, Kaiser). According to ARAW, the NLRB issued an average of just sixteen 10(j) injunctions per year from 2001 through 2005.

Kaiser has now joined the ranks of America's worst corporate outlaws because its executives are hellbent on trying to help SEIU win the NLRB election. And It's clear why: In just 18 months, SEIU's DC trustees have handed huge prizes to Kaiser's executives, including hundreds of millions of dollars of pension cuts, 1,500 layoffs, and a side-deal to cut workers' health insurance. No wonder Kaiser's execs are willing to face federal injunctions.

And Tasty can just imagine the long list of additional concessions that Kaiser execs are preparing if SEIU wins the election.

Time to vote, Kaiser workers! Ballots gotta be mailed ASAP so they reach the NLRB office by Monday.